Airlines
UNWTO Releases Guidelines To Reopen Tourism
The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) has released a set of guidelines to help tourism sector emerge stronger and more sustainably from COVID-19. The guidelines highlight the need to act decisively, to restore confidence and, as UNWTO strengthens its partnership with Google, to embrace innovation and the digital transformation of global tourism. Produced in consultation with the Global Tourism Crisis Committee, the guidelines aim to support governments and private sector to recover from an unparalleled crisis. Depending on when travel restrictions are lifted, the United Nations...
Tracking Travellers’ Perception Of Safety
MMGY Global has launched its new Travel Safety Barometer -- a sentiment tracking tool created for the travel and tourism industry -- to monitor American travellers’ perceptions of how safe it is to engage in specific travel behaviours as the country embarks on its reopening and recovery efforts. Designed by MMGY’s Travel Intelligence research and insights division, the Barometer is an informational resource for both business and leisure travellers and the industry as the coronavirus continues to fundamentally change all aspects of our society, including when, where and how we feel...
Welcome To The New Era Of Air Travel
The rate with which the world's airlines begin their likely lengthy journeys to resuming full operation will initially be somewhat out of their hands, a Wednesday webinar hosted by Baxter Media was told. Consultant Gavin Eccles, whose resume includes working for British Airways and SATA, and who serves as an aviation consultant for Visit Portugal, said carriers' decisions are for the next little while to a large degree dependent on when the world's governments lift travel-crippling restrictions aimed at safeguarding their citizens against coronavirus. "You (airlines) can only go...
Flair Launches Comfort Choice Seating
Flair has unveiled Comfort Choice Seating to provide passengers more choices during their travels. The airline notes that recent studies have shown that low-fare travel is important to Canadians. However, many have been hesitant to fly due to the recent events, affecting all airline travel. In response, Flair is now offering passengers who book seats in rows two to six the chance to take advantage of a middle-seat-free-experience for CDN$49. Comfort Choice Seating comes in addition to Flair’s cleaning protocols that include disinfecting the aircraft at each stop using a...
Debt Levels Will Weigh On Airline Recovery
By year end, IATA says, the airline industry’s global debt could rise to $550 billion – that’s $120 billion over the debt levels at the start of 2020. In its analysis, IATA found that: $67 billion of the new debt is composed of government loans ($50 billion), deferred taxes ($5 billion) and loan guarantees ($12 billion). $52 billion is from commercial sources including commercial loans ($23 billion), capital market debt ($18 billion), debt from new operating leases ($5 billion), and accessing existing credit facilities ($6 billion). Financial aid is a lifeline to get...
Airborne – Last Chance to Register
Baxter Media is sending out a last call for agents to sign up for an important webinar tomorrow (May 27) at 12 p.m. (EST). Join Barbara Dirnberger, VP Business Development for Airline Metrics as she moderates a thought provoking panel that includes Gavin Eccles, Consultant and Professor based in Europe and Robert Rennert, Principal of Elevate Innovation from New York. The multiple daily headlines around the health of the aviation industry continue to be impactful with seemingly no landing in sight yet. Service resumption delays, mergers, receivership announcements, refunds, face...
ACV Introducing New Health and Safety Standards
Air Canada Vacations has launched new health and safety standards to provide customers with greater peace of mind through the various stages of travel. As an extension of Air Canada CleanCare+, the new health and safety standards include the enhanced grooming of vacation transfer vehicles and safety protocols throughout the travel journey for vacation packages to Sun destinations. As well, ACV will continue to work with its trusted hotel partners to support the implementation of the highest standards of safety and cleanliness to give customers added assurance when booking their next...
Porter Deferring Service Resumption To July 29
Porter Airlines says it’s deferring its resumption of flights until July 29 – a month later than previously scheduled -- due to ongoing COVID-19 travel restrictions. Michael Deluce, president and CEO of Porter Airlines, explained: “We want to see our planes in the sky as soon as possible and are actively working to prepare for our resumption of service. However, the ongoing uncertainty presented by government travel restrictions, including border closures, is impacting our ability to operate flights.” And Deluce added: “We are closely watching developments and know that...